FoodTech Weekly #211 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #211

Hi there,

This is my August in Review:

See you for 🔥THE HEAT in the U.K. in September? It’s the first climate-tech festival of the VOYAGERS.io community, and as future food curator I’ve managed to confirm some fantastic FoodTech startups that will provide sampling, and more.

This week's rundown:

💵 Plant-based wholecut seafood startup New School Foods lands $6M
📈 Global FoodTech funding was up 20% H1 2024 vs the first half of 2023
🍺 Murphy’s, Kelly’s, O'Malley’s — Why Irish bars are always named after people

Let's go!

💬 Conversation with Thijs Wullems of Monkeys by the Sea

Thijs Wullems started alt-seafood company Monkeys by the Sea after seeing the impacts of the conventional seafood industry first hand for over a decade:

“I was in the international seafood industry for more than 13 years, and during that time I saw with my own eyes the degradation of the oceans, and the flaws that exist in the supply chain. There’s overfishing, ocean acidification, invasive species, and a lot of dodgy stuff going on in the trade, such as mislabeling. I simply couldn’t unsee all of this.” Read the entire conversation here.

💰 Funding

 🇬🇧 The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), a new innovation center for plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived food, is being established in the U.K., backed with £38M (appr. $50M) from public and private sector partners.

🇺🇸 The Better Meat Co has received a $1.4M grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to support the startup’s production of its mycoprotein ingredient, Rhiza, which can be used to make e.g. plant-based steak.

🇸🇪 Foodchain by Blockchain, which develops traceability solutions for the food industry to help prevent e.g. food fraud, contaminations, and food-borne illnesses, has bagged SEK 3.9M (appr. $380K) from current investors.

🇸🇪 Metabolic and gastric scale-up Deversify Health has gone public on Nasdaq First North Growth Market and raised SEK 28.3M (appr. $2.8M) in the process.

🇨🇦 Plant-based whole cut seafood startup New School Foods of Toronto has reeled in a fresh catch of $6M in funding from Inter IKEA, Good Startup, NewTree Capital, and Hatch. I interviewed their founder Chris Bryson earlier this summer.

🇪🇬 NoorNation has brought home an undisclosed investment from KBW Ventures, founded by Saudi Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed. The company makes solar-powered desalination and irrigation systems that remove salt infiltrating fresh water supplies. Its LifeBox also provides households in Egypt and Rwanda with power for e.g. lighting and running appliances.

🇸🇪 Nordic Seafarm, which does sustainable seaweed cultivation, has scored €2.1M (appr. $2.3M) in funding in a round led by InnoEnergy and Inter IKEA. I interviewed Simon Johansson, CEO of Nordic Seafarm, in Nov 2023.

🇫🇷 Micropep Technologies hauled in a $29M Series B this summer from investors like Zebra Impact Ventures and BPI Green Tech Investments. The company provides biological alternatives to agrochemicals.

🇳🇿 Ruminant Biotech has netted NZD $4M (appr. US $4M) from AgriZeroNZ. The company develops a biodegradable bolus which is placed in livestock rumen, to inhibit methane for up to 6 months. In related news, DSM aims to bring its methane-inhibiting product Bovaer to China.

🌎 Global investments in FoodTech startups for H1 2024 hit $7.3B, up 20% vs. the first half of 2023, new data from DigitalFoodLab shows. The decrease in FoodTech investments which started in Q1 2022 has stopped, and investments have now stabilized at a lower level.

📉 Meanwhile, downrounds increased in H1 2024 (meaning company valuations went down), new data from Pitchbook says:

🧐 Noteworthy

🤝 Swedish mycoprotein startup Mycorena, which had raised over €35M in funding but recently had to file for bankruptcy, has been acquired by Belgian VEOS Group member Naplasol.

🧀 How much cheese is too much?

🏪 GS1 is working with brands and retailers to transition from traditional UPC barcodes on products, to point-of-sale enabled QR codes.

🦾 Richtech Robotics has installed the first drink-serving humanoid in Illinois, as part of a larger deal to deploy its robot at Walmarts all over the U.S.

🌍 News from the FoodTech Weekly community

👨🏻‍💻 Beans (France) has 4 open roles incl. CTO and Head of Growth.

🎤 Welcome to Spot on Food in Kristianstad, Sweden Oct 1-3, the conference where we explore the theme Resilient Food Systems. Discover the latest insights and trends in sustainable food and agricultural innovation. Meet some of the most courageous and innovative entrepreneurs and take advantage of AI-powered matchmaking for networking. Also, enjoy the test kitchen, The Mindful Kitchen & Bar, where you’ll be served food and drinks from Swedish startups and local farms. Use the code Foodtechweekly for a 10% discount.

🫰 U.S. based company Edamam, a leader in nutrition data and solutions for food, health, and wellness companies is exploring strategic alternatives. Edamam, which is profitable, has clients such as e.g. Nestle, Amazon, The Food Network and Noom. The company also has close to 200K developers who have tried its APIs. Edamam is strategically positioned to explore the long-term trends of personalized nutrition and food-as-medicine. To learn more and inquire, please contact the CEO, Victor Penev.

Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.

🎲 Random Stuff

👩🏽‍🚀 Don’t you just hate when you pack light for a one week trip and end up having to stay away for a year?

🍷 The rise of chicken wine (it’s just a brand, don’t worry).

🥫Review of the Costco apocalypse emergency food kit.

😄 This is hilarious. Sound on:

🍻 The legal reason why Irish bars are always named after people.

🚌 An Israeli guy used public transport to travel to all the places featured on the Monopoly Israel board in just one day.

🤖 What is a robot? Great post on Ottomate by Robomart’s Ali Ahmed.

🐦 A U.K. foodtruck has started offering ‘seagull insurance’ in case customers’ snacks are snatched by the birds.

​I love you.
Daniel

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🎵 This issue was produced while listening to Flames by David Guetta and Sia. 🤳Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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Disclosures: I'm founder of Solvable Syndicate. I’m an operating advisor to VC/investment firms Nordic FoodTech VC, Mudcake, and Blume Equity. I'm a mentor at accelerators Katapult Ocean, Big Idea Ventures, and Norrsken Accelerator. I'm an advisor to BIOMILQ, HackGroup, Hooked, Ignitia, Improvin, IRRIOT, Juicy Marbles, Lupinta, NitroCapt, Oceanium, petgood, Rootically, Stockeld Dreamery, Transship, VEAT, and Volta Greentech; in some of these startups, I have equity.

Boring disclaimer: The newsletter content is intended only to provide general and preliminary information to folks interested in FoodTech, and shall not be construed as the basis for any investment decision or strategy. I assume no liability in regards to any investment, divestment, or retention decision taken by readers of this newsletter content.